The Truth About A Cat’s Love Toward Their Owner

Lately, social media has been littered with headlines about how dogs love their owners “5X more” than cats do. Click bait? Mostly, but they are basing the finding on a scientific study run by a real scientist. Does that mean that the findings could be true? I think that pet owners need to read in between the lines on this study to find where the truth really lies.

The Scientific BBC Study

I am off- camera holding the feather that Manna is playing with in this photo.

The study was created for a BBC television show called “Cats v. Dogs.” This new show intends to test cats and dogs in different ways to show which animal is better at which things. For this particular episode, Dr. Paul Zak, a neuroscientist, explored whether cats or dogs appeared to love their humans more by testing their levels of oxytocin. He is a speaker and author of a book titled The Moral Molecule(affiliate link), which is about oxytocin.

Zac’s study included 20 pets and their owners – 10 cats and 10 dogs. A sample of the pet’s saliva would be taken 10 minutes prior to a playful interaction with their owner and then again immediately following the interaction. The saliva samples were then tested to determine the level of oxytocin circulating in the pet’s body.

The results of the study showed that the dogs showed much larger increases of oxytocin than the cats did. Dogs had an increase of 52.7% while cats only had an increase of 12%. Also, only half of the cats tested showed any increase of oxytocin level.

What is Oxytocin?

Oxytocin is a hormone that is known for increasing social interaction in mammals including humans, cats, and dogs. Some have termed it “the Cuddle hormone” or “the Love hormone.” When humans see someone they care about, oxytocin levels in their bodies rise. These levels are also known to rise when someone is hugged, touched, or achieves orgasm. Oxytocin makes people want to interact socially and can make it easier for them to understand social cues.

It is important to note that there are a lot of other functions of oxytocin too. The discovery of this hormone was in relation to childbirth. It seems to play a role uterine contractions and can speed up the delivery of a baby. Many of the roles that have been heavily studied are in relation to childbirth. lactation, and the mother-child connection. Males also produce oxytocin, but females appear to be more sensitive to it.

A Heavily Skewed Story

Manna cuddling up to Dave as she falls asleep on the couch.

Just because a study is done in a scientific way by a real scientist does not mean that it is accurate. Setting up a study so that it fairly tests all subjects is actually very difficult. There have been a number of scientific blunders in history due to studies that were skewed in one direction. For example, I had a sign language teacher who liked to tell a story about one scientist studying intelligence in deaf children in the 1960’s. The scientist went to an elementary school for deaf children just before Easter. One of the questions that she would ask (in sign language) to the children was: “The Easter Bunny will be coming to your home soon. What would you like him to bring you?” The children would begin crying and screaming in horror. None of them wanted to answer the question and when they did, they gave strange answers. This scientist concluded that these children had mental retardation. Little did she know that the whole time she was incorrectly signing the word “bunny” and instead signing “devil.” Unfortunately, many deaf children were diagnosed with mental retardation because of studies like these until the 1970’s.

Problems with Dr. Zac’s Conclusions

Just like the deaf children had the odds unfairly skewed against them in the story above, the Cats v. Dogs study is skewed against cats. Here’s a few examples:

Cinco loving his playtime with me!

The sample size was very small.
Most scientific studies of this type (not invasive or harmful to the subjects) will get the results from 100 or more subjects before coming to a conclusion. This is done to show that there really is a pattern (or not) in the results being received. My guess is that this was quickly done to accommodate the television show and not meant to be a full-scale study.

The study was done in a laboratory setting.
Dogs and humans are okay with traveling to unfamiliar places for a visit, most cats are not. Cats are often quite distressed when they leave their home environment. My cats, especially Cinco, would not be interested in engaging in play with me in an unfamiliar setting. However, at home, they almost constantly interact with me. We play happily all the time (see Niptoons). Also to this point, the scientists that were conducting the study were the ones who collected the saliva samples before and after the play session. The cats in this study likely had anxiety about being in a strange place, but also from being handled by humans they didn’t know.

The results were dependent on the pet completing a behavior on cue.
Unless they have been specially trained to do so, cats rarely respond to the requests of their owner to do something in particular. They play when they feel like playing. Does this equate to not loving thing humans? If you draw that conclusion from it, then you must also conclude that your human loved ones do not love you because they do not always want to do what you would like them to do when you would like them to do it.

The scientists didn’t expect cats to do well.Dr. Zak is quoted as saying, “It was also a nice surprise to discover that cats produce any (oxytocin) at all. At least some of the time, cats seem to bond with their owners.” To be fair, he didn’t think dogs would produce as much as they did either. There has been other small studies regarding oxytocin levels between dogs and humans, but this was a first for cats and humans.

Cinco on my lap while I do my blogging. He sits there with me all the time.

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35 Comments

da tabbies o trout towne
on February 5, 2016 at 2:11 pm

guys….we R rather like “doubting Thomas….we hafta see N heer everee thing for R selves; bee for we put two much stock inta ANY kinda studee….. we love R food servizz peepulz coz we “show” it everee day ~~~ 🙂

My human will be honest on this – she doesn’t WANT to be loved in the needy, slobbery way that dogs love! I’m very devoted to her and I show it in ways that don’t invade her space (well, except for taking up more than half of her office chair when we are both sitting in it) or make her feel icky (she really hates dog drool). I didn’t even see those articles going around and neither did my human.

When I leave Parker alone, either for the day, overnight, or (boarded at the vet) for a longer period, she always tells me about it when I get home. I live about a half mile from the vet’s office; when I picked her up after four nights from a job interview two states away, she started meowing when she heard my voice (she was in a room at the end of the hall; they had let her out into the exam room on the days there were no appointment) and did not stop until a little after I had let her out of the carrier at home. She has also been known to sit on my face after I’ve been gone.

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You also mentioned sign language studies. When Koko the gorilla was taught sign language, there were biologists there to observe her. There were no linguists, and there are some nuances that the non-linguists who are not Deaf signers might not pick up.

You mentioned a small sample size. In my undergraduate biology class, I did a survey that had about 40-50 respondents. My conclusion was that further research was necessary.

I have no doubt that my cat’s love me – Charlie in particular is a big snuggle-bug and the others demonstrate their love in other ways. LOL Cockroaches in my slippers are a gift from Amber – I need to learn to be more appreciative.

That sounds like a not very credible study ; dogs and cats don’t love the same way, and don’t show it the same way as well. Furthermore, 10 dogs and 10 cats in a laboratory doesn’t seem to be a serious panel for a “scientific study”. Purrs

I don’t understand the point of any study that pits pet species against each other. There are also widely varying degrees of personality within each species, so generalizations are dangerous. Whatev. Yes, it’s click bait.

My cats are glad to see me and like to be near me, so are/do my dogs. I dare anyone to try and tell me otherwise. 🙂

Interesting study (although I wouldn’t compare any study to ones done in the 1960s – a lot has changed since then). I think the biggest assumption they made is about the role of Oxytocin in all mammals. And yes, levels.
Click bate is a good point. …. maybe research money bait too, who knows?

I agree…cats are not dogs. That’s my study result, lol:p Levity aside, it’s good to point out how studies are evaluated, the methodology used and if the cohort size is sufficient to arriving at conclusions. A great help to better understanding scientific findings — great job!

I hate how studies like this gain so much momentum on social media and people start believing these ridiculous claims. It really isn’t fair to compare dogs to cats at all. They each express their love differently. Doesn’t make one better than the other.

Once again your delivered an amazing post! Callie the Cat has been wired lately. She will go up to our humans and meow obnoxiously until they wrap her up in their warms and pet her. She has always been antisocial and didn’t much care to be touched until this last year.

Very informative post, thank you! My daughter rehabilitated a feral kitty and now he’s our adopted cat. Binx loves to rub on our legs (even when we are walking) and hop in our car to sit on our laps and walk around, and he loves to give kisses! Love that boy!

You make some really good points here. I agree, testing cats in a laboratory isn’t going to produce the same results as testing them in their home environments with people they know and trust. Oxytocin may not be the only hormone that indicates, “love,” either. This study seems sloppy in many ways, and I don’t think it really proves anything.

My partner works with statistics as part of his job, he says you can make statistics say anything you like. It’s all in the numbers and how they are presented. I suspect his comment would be ‘the sample’ is very small’. Which it is. There is so much that is wrong eith a sample of 20! I mean 20 for heaven’s sake. If you did that on an human study you would be laughed off the internet!

Cats are cats and dogs are dogs. I get so frustrated when science tries to explain the love with formulas and because a guy in a white coat said so. I love dogs and cats. And that’s the story 😉 Great post.

Oh, those scientists don’t know what they’re talking about! I love Mommy so much and show her every day! I’m her shadow and I stick to her like glue. I follow her around the house and meow until she picks me up.

I also disagree with the way the study was done, in that they should have made sure that the cats were bonded to their owners.. not all cats are. Even out of my seven I have a cat that barely takes comfort in my presence.. I’m sure if they tested him he would ‘fail’ but if they tested Jack who NEEEEDS me to to function in life, he probably would have blown all of the dogs out of the water.

Cats have a completely different way of viewing the world than pack animals.. and they really need to stop judging them on those criteria.

Of course – playing with a cat is not how to get a cat to show his/her love for an owner. Cats release oxytocin when purring – not when they are playing which would equate to hunting for a cat. Why on earth would a cat emit this chemical during hunting behavior? In fact, it shows how VERY much they love their owners that any emitted any of the chemical at all, for heaven’s sake.

When I can literally feel my cat’s love for me is when my cat greets me or wants attention or comes when I call. Then, his eyes become almost drugged looking – I call it his lovesick look. He will get in may lap or sit on my chest and simply gaze into my eyes and purr and purr for as long as I show him any attention.

When I call, he comes running unless he is asleep. If I cry, he comes running and is beside himself rubbing on me and wanting to assure himself that all is okay. When I am sick, he won’t leave my side except to eat and go to the bathroom. And if I am crying, he won’t leave for food or anything. He will leave his food if I want his attention, even if he hasn’t eaten since the morning. He will come to me if I call even if he is hurting or sick.